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This story began quite a while ago, around the middle of August, when I was writing a review of the Cubot Power phone. After publishing the review, I put the phone aside for a while, and a few days later I needed it to test how well it could scan barcodes. But then I suddenly discovered that the camera's autofocus had completely stopped working. That's what can happen sometimes when you take something apart. More after the jump.

I wasn’t even planning to write this review anymore, but this time fate had other ideas, and by a roundabout route a new phone from Cubot eventually made its way to me—or, to give its full name, the Cubot Power. The manufacturer came up with this rather straightforward name for its creation. In principle, it’s not a bad idea: there’s no “notch,” dual camera, or other nonsense, but there is a large display, a high-capacity battery, 6 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of flash storage. Somehow, though, it’s like that old joke about Christmas tree ornaments. Anyway, let’s take a look, take it apart, test it, and draw some conclusions.

Not long ago, I published a review of the interesting Thor Plus from Vernee. After reading it, one of my readers became interested in the phone and also asked about another very similar model, the Lenovo P2. After reading up on this smartphone, I was surprised by two things: how I had managed to overlook it before, and how closely its main advertised features matched those of the Vernee. So I ordered one, and after testing it, I never once regretted taking a closer look.

I've already reviewed several phones from this rather well-known company: two budget “rainbows,” the first and second, as well as a more “advanced” model called Cubot Cheetah 2. I chose this phone for review out of curiosity, after reading quite a few positive reviews on the store page. Someone had even bought two of these phones. I thought, maybe there's something interesting here. Anyway, this is a review in my usual style. The only thing is, I didn't take it apart—there's not much point.

I've already reviewed the two previous models in Vernee's Thor lineup. But here's the thing: alongside the "long-lasting" Thor E, Vernee also announced an alternative, the Thor Plus. It's essentially similar to the first model, but has a higher-capacity battery and an AMOLED display. Since I'd reviewed the first two models, it was hard to pass this one up, so I ended up ordering it too.

I’ve already reviewed quite a few smartphones, but I’d like to start this review by saying that this phone isn’t built around the much-maligned MTK SoC from MediaTek. I don’t mean to say anything bad about it; it’s just that the seemingly bottomless supply of processors from this manufacturer, used in almost every budget phone (and plenty of others), has been mentioned many times already. This time, the “heart” of the phone under review is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617—not exactly new, but still a pretty decent chip.

Another smartphone has landed in my hands. This time, it’s a very budget-friendly model with a 4.7-inch screen. As always, it has its pros and cons. Let’s take a closer look and see whether it might be of interest to buyers.

Almost exactly a year ago, I published a review of the debut model from a manufacturer that was still unknown at the time, Vernee. You can say a lot and criticize its shortcomings, but in any case, the Thor model they released first turned out not to be so bad after all, and one of these “firstborns” has been under my watch for more than a year now. So today I’ll tell you about the next phone in the Thor lineup, show it, and compare it with the previous model, sometimes “face to face.” And, of course, there’ll be the obligatory teardown.

Last year I reviewed the Cubot Rainbow smartphone, and now I was offered an updated model. I was simply curious whether anything had changed, and if so, in what direction. In this review, you can take a look at the phone itself, find out how it differs from its predecessor, and see a comparative test of battery capacity when charging via USB and when measured “separately.”

Some time ago, I got my hands on a rather interesting smartphone. Somehow, I never got around to telling you about it. Time went by, and every now and then I sat down to work on the review, but I only decided to finish it now. But first things first.